June 29, 2006

by Carolyn JonesWith resolutions and proclamations, left-leaning cities and counties across the United States have started a drumbeat calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Now Berkeley has taken it one step further.

With overwhelming support from Berkeley residents, the Berkeley City Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday night to be the first jurisdiction in the United States to let the public vote for the President's impeachment. The measure will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot, at a cost of about $10,000.

The measure alleges that the administration violated the Constitution with illegal domestic spying, justified the Iraq war with fraudulent claims and illegally tortured citizens. San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz and dozens of other cities have already passed council resolutions urging impeachment but none has gone as far as Berkeley.

The measure is strictly advisory, but the city hopes it sparks a national debate on the presidency and the Constitution. It's already attracted national media attention -- much of it of the wacky-Berkeley variety. Fox News, a slew of right-wing talk shows and hundreds of voters have already contacted City Hall.

Some members of the public -- who mostly live outside Berkeley -- wondered why the city's spending $10,000 on an advisory measure when crime, schools and homelessness all demand attention from city leaders.

"This whole exercise is a gross waste of time and money," wrote Arnold Baranco of El Cerrito. "A better use of the money could be applied to the Berkeley school system or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."

But city officials aren't fazed.

"The whole idea is to start a grass fire surging up on this issue," said Councilwoman Dona Spring. "We hope other cities put this on the ballot as well. Just in the Bay Area we could get 2 or 3 million votes, which would be a very powerful statement."

Among those who attended the Berkeley City Council meeting, urging the council to approve the measure, were peace activists Cindy Sheehan and Daniel Ellsberg. In addition, more than 500 Berkeley residents sent supportive e-mails to City Hall.

Only three residents said they were against the idea, which is no surprise -- of Berkeley's 70,000 registered voters, only 5 percent are Republicans. In the 2004 presidential election, more than 85 percent of the electorate voted for John Kerry. Berkeley is also not shy about dabbling in experimental policies before anyone else. Curbside recycling, fair trade coffee and Styrofoam bans all started as "only-in-Berkeley" ventures, and all are now common throughout the country.

Berkeley's hope is that the impeachment ballot measure follows suit.

"I don't think it's a laughable idea," said UC Berkeley political science and public policy Professor Henry Brady. "This is a president with a 35-40 percent approval rating. They shouldn't be laughing."

But impeachment might not be the way to go, Brady said. While voters may be frustrated with the Bush administration, impeachment should not be taken lightly.

"Bush may have made many, many policy errors, but it's questionable whether he's committed high crimes and misdemeanors," he said. "I think we've been too quick to talk about impeachment for the past 20 years."

A more effective way to fight the White House is to pressure representatives to tackle some of these issues, Brady said.

"The bigger picture is that people are upset about Bush and not quite sure how to deal with it," he said. "But they should pressure Congress to hold hearings on what's gone wrong."

Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has said she is not interested in impeaching Bush if the party takes over the House in November's elections.

"The No. 1 reason we're doing this is educational," said Councilman Kriss Worthington, who's worked on the measure for a year. "In the four or five months before the election, I suspect a lot of people will be learning about these issues."

In Crawford, Texas, where Bush's ranch is located, the reaction to Berkeley's move was mixed.

"People in Crawford have been kind of quiet lately," said Leon Smith, editor of the Crawford newspaper, the Lone Star Iconoclast. "I've heard a lot of people -- Republicans -- get on Bush's case lately about the war, immigration, the economy. They're really starting to feel the effects of those things."

Smith's paper, the only newspaper in Crawford, made international news in 2004 when it endorsed Kerry for president. Since then, subscriptions and community support have plummeted.

But Smith does not regret taking a stand against the president.

"People were extremely upset. We still haven't been forgiven," said Smith, a lifelong resident of the Crawford area.

At Donald's Coffee Shop near Bush's ranch, the reaction to Berkeley's measure was a long sigh.

"That's just liberals," said owner Donald Citrano, who has served the commander in chief chicken fried steak and coconut pie at his cafe. "They're not gonna change their minds and conservatives aren't gone change their minds."

Berkeley's measure was drawn up by law students and other young people in a non-partisan group called Constitution Summer, whose goal is to "create a conversation about impeachment," said co-founder Geoffrey King. "We're talking about a perfect storm of torture, domestic surveillance and lying. Berkeley showed a lot of courage with this."